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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Spookery and mystery and romantic suspense from Kirsty Ferry

Today, my special guest is Kirsty Ferry, whose intriguingly-titled
novel Some Veil Did Fall is published
this autumn by award-winning independent Choc Lit.

Welcome, Kirsty – come in, sit down and have a coffee and a cupcake?
I bought chocolate, strawberry and vanilla today. Yes, like the ice cream and
just as delicious.

Well thank you. Yes.
I’ll have a chocolate one please. Oh, and a strawberry one. And go on, a
vanilla one as well. It would be rude not to when you’ve gone to so much
trouble, Margaret.

Your novel looks delicious, too – such a gorgeous shade of
pink! Did you have any input when it came to designing the cover? What does it
tell us about the novel?

I had no input at all
– but I trust Berni Stevens implicitly. She does the majority of covers for
Choc Lit and she’s also done two for my self-published ventures. It was a case
of, go on, there’s the story, make it fabulous. And she has. The idea is that,
because this is part one of a series, if I’m lucky enough to have the others
accepted, the colours will be just as vibrant on those - only we will have say a green one and then a
blue one. I think it tells the reader that we’ve got a bright, shiny romantic
story with a historical side to it.

We’ve never met face to face, so will you share a little
background stuff with me? Do you come from a family of writers or are you the
family maverick? When did you first decide you wanted to write fiction, and
what drew you to romantic fiction in particular?

I am the family
maverick. My family love to read but I’m the only one who writes. I’ve loved
writing since I was a child but once my son was born in 2001 I had a break of
several years. I took an Open University course when he was about six or seven
which kick-started me into it again and I had soon placed most of the stories
I’d written for the course into magazines and suchlike, then had a competition
win which boosted my confidence no end. Some Veil Did Fall is actually an expansion of a short story I
wrote for the course. I did 1,500 words about a girl who visits a stately home,
seems to recognise the place somehow and eventually sees a portrait that looks
like herself. I never tried to place that one anywhere as I knew I wanted to
expand it, because the character had more to say to me. I’ve done non-fiction articles
as well, but I love fiction as I feel you are truly creating something and can
have your characters say and do stuff you’d never be brave enough to do in real
life! Romantic fiction just “happened” with Veil. I’d never written a romance (well, apart from one disastrous thing
that I hated) and much preferred ghost stories, paranormals and timeslips. Then
I suddenly realised I could add some romance into the story. It just rounded
the book off very nicely and gave it that extra element.

Some Veil Did Fall
is the first novel in the Rossetti series of romantic mysteries. Please could
you tell us a little about this first volume and give us a few hints about how
you intend to develop the series? What can we expect in Volume 2?

Some Veil Did Fall is
based on the premise of reincarnation and soulmates, which is in turn the
concept of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poem Sudden Light, the poem from which I filched the title of the book. The more I
researched Rossetti and indeed the Pre Raphaelites, the more I developed an
interest in them and I could see how I could do a linked series of books based
on Rossetti poems. Becky and Jon weren’t content with the one book – they
wanted to be in the next one too. And Lissy, Jon’s sister, shouted the loudest.
So in book two, which is entitled The Other Ophelia, we have a new couple, Cori and Simon, who are introduced through
Lissy’s volunteer work at the Tate Gallery and a mystery surrounding the famous
Millais/Lizzie Siddal picture of Ophelia, a Victorian diary and a crazed nineteenth-century
laudanum addict by the name of Daisy. That book is set three years after Veil, and then the third book, Sea Spell, is set yet another three years into the
future. Sea Spell is based on the
Rossetti poem of the same name and involves Lissy, her gorgeous Italian
ex-boyfriend and a ruined house by the coast which harbours another secret –
this time with reference to the Pre Raphaelite photographer, Julia Margaret
Cameron. So we have poetry, paintings and photographs in the series. The
characters are still shouting a little bit, and I have to say a couple of them
have popped up unintentionally in my current work in progress – which was meant
to be a stand alone!

Becky and Jonathon are the hero and heroine of Some Veil Did Fall. How did they develop
as characters – did they appear in your mind as if by magic and say write about us? Or are they based on
people you know in real life? Or…

They are completely
fictional. Becky Version 1 was there first, as she appeared in the original short
story, and then one day, Becky Version 2 was walking along the street and boom:
there was Jon, carrying his cup of coffee and not paying very much attention to
his surroundings. They developed as I wrote. Any writer will tell you that once
they start keeping you awake at night you’re doing something right – and those
two definitely did that to me. I had to have a notebook by the bed which was
filled with nocturnal scribbling about the next step in the plot or the next
twist to come. But they still kept at it after the book was done – which is why
they became linked in the series.

Planner, vague outliner or planning phobic – when it comes
to working out the storyline in a novel, who are you? I’m a planner, but I know
some novelists refuse to plan!

I wing it. Totally and
utterly. I have an idea of the start and an inkling of the ending, but it’s
anybody’s guess what happens in the middle, and I do find that it’s quite an
adventure. I love getting that lightbulb moment when you go ‘aha!’ and find
yourself with a nifty twist you hadn’t even considered. I’d probably be more
productive if I planned, but it’s not in my nature!

When you get that movie deal, who will play Becky and
Jonathon?

Ohhhhh! Tough one.
Alexandra Daddario who played Annabeth Chase in the Percy Jackson movies is a possibility for Becky and for
Jon, perhaps Jamie Dornan. He’s got the right look, but after Fifty Shades he might find my book a bit tame!

Five quick questions:

What
your best time of day for writing?

If I’m in on my own, it’s after lunch until tea time, interspersed with
lots of coffee trips to the kitchen and back. If the family is around, it’s
bedtime. Not a chance otherwise!

Who
are your favourite romantic hero and heroine?

You see, I love Heathcliff and Cathy, but when you get down to it,
despite the passion, WutheringHeights was never actually a romance! But they had
that spark and I’m still going to choose them, just to be rebellious.

If
you could interview any real historical figure, who would it be and why?

Emily Bronte. I would want to see what her inspiration was for Wuthering
Heights and how she would feel if she
knew that people still thought her book incredible after all these years. It’s
actually a really complex book so I would like to discuss how she managed to
pull that off when she led such an apparently sheltered life!

Do
you have any special non-writing ambitions?

Not really. I’ve just completed an Honours Degree in Literature and
achieved a First, so that was a big ambition, but I think I just want my family
and friends happy and healthy to be honest.

Do
you believe in ghosts?

Oh yes. My books are full of them and I love anything to do with them. I
think I even had one in my last house, and my cousin definitely has one in
hers!

Thank you, Kirsty it’s been great to talk to you!

And to you. Thank you
for having me. Are you eating that last cupcake? Because I’ll take it off your
hands if you want...

Margaret James The Silver Locket

Margaret James Elegy for a Queen Kindle Edition

About Me

I'm a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing for the London School of Journalism. I've written fifteen published novels and lots of short stories, one of which was published in the RNA's Golden Anniversary anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not - am very proud of that!